Taking the stress out of your child's annual celebrations!

Archive for the ‘Face painting’ Category

In my job as a children’s party entertainer, puppeteer and face painter, I do get to meet lots of lovely children. Today was no exception.

I spent the morning in sunny Kensingtonat a lovely party for Eva. She is a delightful little girl with very lovely, caring parents. We spent a good forty five minutes giggling with my puppets, in fact one young boy was laughing so hard he could hardly get his breath. Twinkle the Baby Monkey

Twinkle, my very cheeky baby monkey. A dear friend.

charmed the children with his refusal to say hello and his banana trumpet, Bobby Bunny

Diane's favourite puppet bunny, Bobby.

played Sleeping Bunnies with 20 or so chuckling children and naughty bunny that he is, snored when he was supposed to be sleeping and kept shouting out Tuna fish! (You have to be there to understand). Trust me, if your sense of humour is like mine, it’s all hilarious. Fifi the naughty baby fairypuppet

Look at her pretty hair!

got all the words wrong to Twinkle Twinkle and Baa Baa Black Sheep but managed to give lovely twinkle toes wishes to sweet 3 year old Eva and sing Happy Birthday in her own inimitable style. Hilarity was all topped off with a good old jumping on the bed session with Jaffa the Monkey.

During the lunch session, I was on duty face painting. I painted numerous butterflies with twinkly noses , flower fairies, a lion, a tiger , a bunny and a few kittens. Face painting little children is so rewarding. It’s all about that moment when you show them their completed painted faces in the mirror. That magical moment when their faces light up and the smile crinkles across their cheeks, it’s just the best feeling . The last child I painted today was a sweet, shy girl who didn’t put herself forward for face painting immediately. In fact, I wasn’t sure she wanted her face painted, but I was ready to pack up and needed to make sure that she didn’t want to have a go first before I made my way to the next party. After all, no one likes to disappoint children. So I smiled at her and gestured towards my chair, asking her gently if she would like her face painted. She was a little reticent but after a little cajoling she had her face painted as a very delicate flower fairy.

It was time for the big reveal. I picked up the mirror and held it in front of her face.

There it was, that wonderful smile that made the eyes twinkle.

She ran off to her mummy, clearly very delighted with the result and maybe just a little bit proud of her courage.

” Mummy,Rosie painted my face!” she kept exclaiming, over and over again.

“But that lady’s name is Diane”, said mummy.

“No mummy, Rosie did it” insisted my little flower fairy.

I decided Rosie was a lovely name and accepted it with grace.

At the next party in the afternoon, also in Kensington , after painting rainbow butterflies, spiderman and a host of flower fairies, princesses and notably for the very first time of my 18 years of face painting, a volcano(!) another child referred to me as Rosie to her mummy. I mentioned to this mummy that that was the second time today and did she know why ?

Rosie is on CBeebies. She is a ragdoll character who wears ribbons in her hair.

AAAAAh! So that’s it!

Spot the difference.

This is Rosie

This is me.

Rainbow on my head

I know, I know. Totally indistinguishable.

I love my job. The life of a children’s party entertainer is just full of surprises!

If you’d like “Rosie” ( aka Diane aka me ) to come to your child’s party, just pop over to my website www.dianes-puppets.co.uk to find out more about my party entertainment service.

Here is Aunty Lena and her wonderful hat and myself with Fifi the fairy.

Anyone who knows me and Diane’s Puppets over the years, will know that for over ten years I was more than ably assisted by my dear friend ‘Aunty Lena’. We made a formidable team, being best friends gave us a natural rapport and an understanding that didn’t need much communication to work. We simply knew what each other was thinking.

Having a laugh with Aunty Lena

Lena would also assist me with the face painting during the tea time.

Aunty Lena face painting

When I first approached Lena about working with me, she said ” I’ll do anything but I won’t be able to face paint”. Oh woman of little faith. You turned out to be a face painter of much merit, able to turn out fast and delicate faces with a deft touch and always with a silly sense of humour and a gentle manner.

The picture speaks for itself, never easy to face paint a one year old, but here is a very happy little baby with sweet flowers.

Too sweet for words

So, Aunty Lena was able to tackle most challenges in the face painting department, including rising to tractors and even racing cars. Not bad for someone who claimed not to have any artistic merit.

However, there was one memorable exception: the notorious, hysterical case of the rocket.

Picture the scene, a busy party, lots of mums are standing around chatting while the rest of the children are eating their tea. A sweet four year old girl sits down in front of you, eyes wide and excited, looking forward to being face painted. After asking what she wants, you start to paint a rocket. It’s not looking quite right so you ask the other person to help you. That other person was me.

I looked over at sweet four year old to see her with a white rocket shaped object , but with a red triangular tip on her cheek. Child is blissfully unaware of the two ladies in front of her starting to giggle.

I realised the rocket was missing engines.

Paint some engines on, I suggested. That should do it.

NOOOOOOOOOO!

Both of us realised what we had done was inadvertently ended up painting a rather gruesome phallic looking thing on this very sweet and innocent girls face.

That’s when the giggles started to take over. Aunty Lena couldn’t speak for laughter, tears were streaming down her face as she realised how inappropriate this face paint had become. Quite innocently of course, but there it was, a four year old girl with a very rude looking face paint.

I hastily reached for baby wipes and started over, tears running down my face.

We both hoped none of the yummy mummies had witnessed our fiasco.

Aunty Lena avoided rockets from then on. I tackle ( no pun intended fnar fnar) them carefully to avoid repeating any similar situations.

I mean what was that little girl thinking asking for a rocket anyway ? What’s wrong with a fairy?

( As a very dedicated feminist , that last statement is not to be taken seriously )

Aunty Lena now works in Morley Gallery but remains my loyal and lovely and very delightfully silly friend.

My job as a London Children’s Entertainer and birthday puppet show provider keeps me on my toes, or my fishy tail.

I’ve had a request to do a mermaid themed party. Being a lady who likes a challenge, I’ve been exploring all things mermaid and am excited at the creative possibilities of the theme. I’ve unearthed my 20 year old carrier bag full of sea shells that I collected yes, twenty years ago with the idea of doing something creative with them. Who says that hoarding isn’t a useful habit? I’m about to put them to good use after 20 years. I’m still not quite sure what I’m going to do with them as yet, but something grotto-ish will be inevitable.

I’ve found a use for that long blonde wig that I’ve had hanging around for some reason I can’t even remember. I decided to paint my face as a mermaid and try out the mermaid long blonde look.

Oh dear.

Why do wigs make me look like a man in drag?

I thought I’d look like this

My mermaid puppet

But instead I got this:

I don't look quite how I expected to look. Sigh.

At least the face painting looks nice

I’m not sure that blonde is my colour. I can’t believe I bleached my hair for over 20 years. I’m so glad I’ve found my sense in my forties.

I’m not sure the pearlised white base is terribly flattering for late 40’s skin either…

A picture is worth a thousand words , so how many words are lots of pictures worth?

Here is a collection of my puppets and I, let the pictures tell the story.

Bobby Bunny, Tabitha Cat and me, Diane.

Before the recession hit I used to have lovely Aunty Lena

We made a great team

Getting the children to stretch and wiggle

Bobby Bunny hopping in his show

Now it's just me but the show must go on!

Diane can be fierce and brave like a tiger

Or gentle like a bunny

Or magical and colourful like a butterfly

What would you like to be painted as?

You're a pretty pink butterfly!

Or you could be a fierce pirate oo arrgh!

with a pirate show to match!

We all love a pretty mermaid, this one can fight too!

Watch out , there's a shark behind you!

Whatever show you choose, Diane promises to keep it silly and to keep you laughing

Until it's time to wave goodbye!

Diane’s Puppets guarantees a fabulous time for all boys and girls at their birthday party and Diane promises to be a silly sausage always. Hope to see you soon at a London Children’s birthday party near you!

All successful businesses need a USP : a unique selling point. For the last 15 years or so I’ve thought that it was my ability to combine entertainment and fast face painting into one party package. This saves lots of money eliminating the need to book a separate face painter.

Fantasy eye make up for big girls

A fast and pretty butterfly

I suppose not many entertainers can offer that, hence the unique part of the USP. I’m always complimented on my fast and delicate face painting. Of course, there is always a slight compromise on detail when it comes to speed but I do try and make the face painting as detailed and delicate as I possibly can in the time allotted. Do stop by my website to have a look at the different packages I offer including face painting. They start from as little as £140 for 90 minutes.

Well that was up until today.

What changed?

Well let me set the scene.

I was in full swing, entertaining some lovely London children at a delightful 5 year old girl’s birthday party( thank you for inviting me Asha), raising giggles and smiles all around. As per usual , I was starting the entertainment off with my baby monkey puppet, Twinkle. He is a very well loved and remembered character in my repertoire, one of the very few shop bought puppets that I use.

Twinkle, my very cheeky baby monkey. A dear friend.

Actually, before I get to the crux of the story, let me tell a little bit about my current Twinkle. He isn’t the original one that I bought around 10 years ago from that massive toyshop in Regents Street, London. He belongs to a girl who now must be in her teens. She was one of my little clients who had fallen in love with Twinkle and had begged her mum and dad to buy her one from the same shop. So they did, lovely parents that they were.

The next time I was invited to the little girls house to entertain for her birthday party, she ran up the stairs anxiously telling me to wait. She came charging down the stairs in great excitement, clutching her ‘Twinkle’.

‘Please can we swap?’ She pleaded. I couldn’t possibly turn her earnest request down. How could I disappoint such a sweet little girl? So we swapped, despite her monkey looking very well cuddled.

I only hope that she wasn’t expecting that now she had the ‘real’ Twinkle that he would talk like he talked when I used him at parties. She would be so disappointed.

So I was at the point in the routine that Twinkle plays tunes on a plastic banana. ( It’s hard to explain, suffice it to say it’s very silly) . He plays Happy Birthday to the birthday girl on the banana. It was at that point that it hit me!

THIS IS MY UNIQUE SELLING POINT!

What other London Children’s Entertainer wishes happy birthday to their client with a monkey playing tunes on a banana? Who else could top this triumph of silliness?